It's spring foaling season, and the neonatal unit for premature and seriously ill newborn foals is running full tilt at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. Modeled after human neonatal wards, the critical care unit offers round-the-clock monitoring and the latest in therapies to help pull these fragile equine babies through their first weeks of life. Each year, approximately 40-50 foals are brought to the neonatal unit, where they receive potent antibiotics, oxygen, intravenous feeding and orthopedic braces, when needed. Foals undergo a number of critical developmental changes even in the last two weeks of their 11-month gestation, and those born a month too soon may have severe problems, many similar to those of a premature infant. Even full-term foals are likely to suffer from widespread infections and oxygen deprivation at birth. "Foals need unique kinds of treatments and have high fatality rates because their ailments often are not immediately recognized," says Dr. John Madigan, a UC Davis specialist in equine medicine who developed the neonatal unit. Seventy percent of foals treated in the neonatal unit survive, with costs for the average three-to-five-day stays ranging from $2,000 to $4,000.